Quatuor Danel & Shostakovich

“A powerful new cycle live from these Shostakovich veterans”
Artistic endeavour never lies till. Nearly 20 years ago the Quatuor Danel made what is widely regarded as a benchmark recorded cycle of the complete Shostakovich quartets. But ideas evolve, and this latest set sees two new members in the lower strings in a brilliantly vivid live recording given in the Mendelssohn Hall of the Leipzig. But ideas evolve, and this latest set sees two new members in the lower strings in a brilliantly vivid live recording given in the Mendelssohn Hall of the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
Traversing these works is a demanding process, reflecting Shostakovich’s own trials and tribulations. Spanning 36 years, their stylistic and harmonic is journey is perceptively interpreted here. The Danel brings a vast range of instrumental colour to Shostakovich’s sound world, using deep sonorous tones one minute and non-vibrato the next, while some of the notes are barely audible. It observes the letter and the spirit of the score with laudable accuracy, and handles the swift-changing tempos with absolute mastery. (In the Tenth Quartet) the Danel generates a visceral power with searingly strong bow strokes. Dynamics become extreme, nowhere more so than in the macabre Serenade of the Fifteenth Quartet, depicted with razor-sharp intensity. The C major section of the Elegy …. hails back to the First Quartet’s innocent lines … The circle is complete.